The thing is, the tree is coming along very slowly, but I can’t say I’m all that happy with it. In my mind, it was going to have more contrast, more texture, more je ne sais quoi.
And it doesn’t.
And although I want to sit and slap some ideas around, I haven’t managed to do that yet – partly I suspect because I’m trying to solve the tree problem and I don’t want to leave it without feeling happier about it.
So, I’m feeling a bit grumpy and a bit out of sorts. And the best thing when I’m in this frame of mind is to get off and moan in private.
I’ll come back when I’ve got my happy face back (as my mother thankfully never said).
This week I’ve concentrated most of my efforts on the tree. It seems to have passed that critical point when you find that something makes a bit more sense and you actually want to see where it’s taking you.
Of course the open weave hessian (burlap), makes for an interesting stitching experience, but I’ve decided to let it teach me, rather than impose my stitching style onto it. It isn’t all plain sailing – we’ve had our moments of disagreement, and I half expect more to come, but above all, I am learning.
Look away now if you’re of a nervous disposition – the picture below shows just how random the stitches are…even I have had to buy myself a big piece of 14 count mono, just to reassure myself that I have somewhere to go back to if it all goes pear-shaped.
tree trunk detail
But do you know what? I’m actually pretty happy seeing where we’re going with this – at least I am for the moment – next week, who could say.
top of the tree detail
I did a kind of running stitch tramming for the background colour, so that I’d have some texture to work into, and so that I could see what an overall colour would do to the composition. My idea is to stitch over the background to give it more depth and stability. We might fall out about that.
But all in all, it’s beginning to have that certain weight in the hand. It definitely feels more like a tapestry than an off-cut of hessian now and who knows, it might work out OK.
I could hardly believe my ears this morning, listening to Radio 4. There was a piece about a new tapestry, to rival the Bayeux in length – describing the history of Scotland.
Alexander McCall Smith signing books in Helsinki April 2007 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Apparently, it is the brainchild of the author Alexander McCall Smith – he who gave us the Number One Ladies’ Detective Agency – and who must be one of the most engaging Scots alive today, together with the artist Andrew Crummy (what a splendid name for any artist), and history writer Alistair Moffat.
The work will comprise over 100 panels, each being worked by volunteer stitchers from around Scotland. It is to go on display in August 2013.
I had a quick trawl around Google this morning, looking for pictures or more information, but so far, nothing substantial – just the link at the bottom of this post – perhaps we’ll see more later today, since at last, needlework has hit the major news programme of the day!
So a huge thumbs up to McCall Smith for having the vision and will to put this project into action – and I really look forward to seeing what the finished piece looks like. What a wonderful legacy for future generations of proud Scots.
Glad to see that someone still appreciates the value and the art of tapestry.
While I was away in Prague, the stained glass windows in St Vitus’s Cathedral made a huge impact on me. I’ve always loved stained glass, but something about the colours and the sheer amount of glass in that building, touched me somewhere – the greens and blues were especially wonderful. Do you ever get the feeling that you are bathing in the coloured light?
Then, when I got home, the latest issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors, was waiting for me. In it, was an article about the artist Kirsty Quinn and some small pictures of her work.
Again, something about the use of colour and texture touched a spot in me.
I found myself wanting to try to do something with these inspirations. So, I’ve been having a little play.
I found some air-dry clay in the cupboard, rolled it out and then spent a happy hour embossing shapes and lines into it. Of course, it would hardly be me if a tree hadn’t planted itself in there too.
detail - tree
Today, with the clay being nice and hard, I’ve carried on playing, by painting it with a combination of acrylic inks and paints – most with metallic finishes – I’m a sucker for shiny things.
And I finished it off with some rub-on metallic wax. I really enjoyed doing it. Back to the stitching now.
How do you respond to the urge to create something? Some art forms lend themselves to a potentially rapid response – drawing & painting mean that you can quickly get into your work, see your ideas in action. Other art forms take longer – music, stone-carving, writing, all these require a long creative process. I see needlepoint in this category – slow art.
But as a slow artist, my creative urges aren’t generally slow. I get impatient with the work I’m making – not generally while I’m doing it, but I often feel impatient to see it in its finished state.
I get seized with ideas for compositions, colours, inspirations – things that I’d like to create in needlepoint, but I know that it will be a long time before I can bring any of these to light in stitch and canvas.
But this week, I had a few little personal revelations.
The first was something that occurred to me while I was working on the piece I’m calling ‘shell’.
Shell, in progress
Whenever I start a piece, when there are just a few little stitches on a big piece of bare canvas, it can be difficult to ‘get into’ the flow. I feel irritable, it doesn’t draw me in to work at it. But I keep going. Then, at some point, usually about a week or so into the stitching, I suddenly ‘see’ where I’m going. The piece starts to have its own life and then, from that point, I find that I have an urgency to carry on.
I reached this point on ‘shell’ this week.
The second thing that occurred to me this week, was that stepping out of my comfort zone, isn’t a bad thing to do.
The tree piece that I started, hadn’t reached the critical point of seeing where I was going with it – I was struggling.
Tree, it looks better in my mind, where I can see the next stage
I’d had a break, but then it kept popping up in my mind. I think my subconscious mind has probably been spending time working on it for me. Anyway, I picked it up again, and now I am beginning to ‘see’ it. It won’t take tent stitch, so I’m having to explore alternative ideas. I need to lay down a structure, which I’m doing now, so that I can then come back over those areas, adding colour and texture.
In my mind now, I can see how this can be created – that’s a very big step forward for me. The piece feels so different in hand, to my usual needlepoint, but at last, I’m beginning to understand it better.
And the third thing that struck me this week, was that just because my chosen medium is a slow one, doesn’t mean that I am restricted to working in that medium. At last (please don’t laugh at the poor old girl’s naivety), I realised that when those pesky creative urges hit, there’s nothing to stop me getting the pencils or the paints out, and getting them down.
That might not seem very radical to you, but to me this was important. I do think that I’m gradually starting to understand how ideas form, how odd snippets of inspiration coalesce, and how you don’t have to be a perfect artist to use those flashes as they come.
The best thing I’ve found, is that when I do get the pens out and just get on with it, I experience a great sense of relief, and then I can pick up the stitching again, with a clearer mind.
Oh, and the very last revelation – I love Prague. (I went there last week – there’s a post on my non-stitchy website, Mostly Motley, if you’re interested. Just the most incredibly beautiful city you could imagine).
Slow progress on the canvas, but lots happening in the garden.
Spot the bee on the blossom
I don’t seem to have made much progress on the canvas this week, but I’ve been distracted. Mother Nature is performing her seasonal miracles in the garden and you’d have to be hard-hearted not to want to watch.
On March 1st, I took some pictures.
Snowdrops on St Davids Day
I’m no gardener, so everything that comes up in my little patch has well and truly got here on it’s own merits, but I’m always fascinated by the way that life springs up from the cold and dark winter soil.
Snowdrops appear every year. I’ve never planted any.
Eternally interesting ivy
Ivy winds itself around the trees and over the fences. It’s welcome in my garden, the flowing leaves take off the sharp edges of the fences. A touch of ‘The Secret Garden’.
Today, daffodils have flowered.
Spring flowers
Sunshine is pouring through the window and energy is seeping back.
Here are the stitches.
Slow progress
I’ve resorted to a frame for the time-being – just too soft to keep tight for stitching, but once it gains its own strength, I’ll take it off again.
detail
Not using my normal vivid palette on this piece – yet. It might call out for colour as it develops, but at the moment, it’s pale.
The girls are back at school this week, so at last, there’s an opportunity to start work on the new hessian.
Tree Design on 7.5oz Hessian
The first piece I’ve used, is the 7.5oz hessian. This has a very large hole and irregular weave. After I’d painted in some design guides, I ended up hemming the edges because it was already starting to fray.
Then I tried stitching it for a couple of hours.
I soon found that tent stitch didn’t work at all well. I think the size and unevenness of the weave made it pull up in a rather unpleasing way.
I unpicked it and instead, I started using some random running stitches to try and give it a bit more structure. That works reasonably well on the background, and I then tried randomly tent stitching into the vertical running stitch lines, which also felt quite effective.
I’m not sure yet though how to approach the tree itself. It needs more thought and probably some experimentation. The canvas is very light-weight, but will need a lot of stitching over – it seems to cry out for texture. I might even go into town and see if the knitting shop has any wool that might lend itself.
On the plus side, working with such big holes makes fast progress, so although it’s a big piece, if I can decide how to work it, it shouldn’t take too long.
But…
This morning, I had the uncontrollable urge to tent stitch something – well it’s been a week!
So, I took out the 10oz hessian, and had a go at putting a design together.
Shell inspired 10oz hessian
I decided to hem it straight away, before I got into the sewing; this stuff really frays badly and as I can’t easily put it in a frame, I thought I’d give it a sporting chance and roll up the edges.
So, this is what I came up with.
I had a look in the box of colours and chose an assortment of paler colours to try out with this.
The colour palette - possibly.
I might change my mind when I get into the sewing, but I’m a bit tired of blues and purples at the moment.
I’ve got quite a few things to do today, (must buy more eggs for pancakes) – but hopefully I’ll get on with it this evening
Typical isn’t it – can’t finish a piece of tapestry for months, then complete two in two weeks.
Well, alright, a bit of a cheat really, as the Dunstanburgh Castle piece was much smaller and I was trying to see how long an A4 sized tapestry could take.
Here it is…
Dunstanburgh Castle
It’s a mix of tapestry wool, crewel wool, space-dyed rayon and pure silk (courtesy of the sale of Debbie Bliss silk, at my local shop).
Although I painted the canvas before working it, I found the white squares very off-putting while I was sewing. I had to take regular breaks because I was developing a nasty fuzzy sight effect – presumably from constantly looking at all those squares.
I really am going to have to make the effort to find a more sympathetic canvas.
It used to be fairly easy to get different types of canvas, but lately, it’s become much more difficult. The local wool shop used to carry a reasonable stock, but now, they’ve almost given up on canvas completely. You can buy a small range of kits and they still have Anchor or DMS wools, but that’s pretty much it.
I’m going to have to do some research to find suppliers – preferably in real shops – I just need to feel the canvas and see the yarns, which is very hard to do from websites – although websites seem to be the only places I can get most of my materials now. Are we such a dying breed, that it’s not worth stocking yarns and canvasses?
I’ve been a bit quiet for the last few days – nothing new there – but this time, it’s for a reason…I have finished the big piece!
Finally, the fingers were functioning well enough, and in fact, there was surprisingly little still to do.
Here it is.
Firmament
Most of the time that I’ve been working on it, I’ve called it ‘the big piece’ (it’s about 50cm x 80cm, if you were wondering), but as I came to the end, I kept thinking of the word firmament, so that’s what I’m going to call it.
This has been the largest single piece of needlepoint that I’ve ever made. I feels like a long time now, since the car boot sale, when I picked up the offcuts of upholstery canvas and a bag of tapestry wools, last spring. It’s been incredibly good value for money, as it’s kept me out of trouble for months. (OK, I might be turning the proverbial blind-eye to the cost of additional wools and silks, but I don’t worry about little things like that…)
So, there it is. Soon to be consigned to the pile of other pieces I’ve made over the last few years. I can’t bear to make any more cushions with them, so they’ll have to sit on the shelf until I find the inspiration to do something with them.
Working on loose weave upholstery canvas has been the biggest eye-opener for me on this project. It has a life all its own and behaves quite differently to the usual canvas, with its regimented lines of perfect squares. As soon as the weather picks up, I’m going to be out there in car boot land, looking for some more supplies – unless that is, anyone can point me in the direction of a supplier which doesn’t involve trudging round muddy fields?
Onwards then. Nature abhors a vacuum, apparently – so I’m already well on the way with Dunstanburgh Castle. I decided to make this roughly A4 sized, to see how long it would take to sew it and also to give it a marginally useful life after sewing – I’m looking for ways to put the tapestry out into the real world, other than in cushions.
Still making progress on the tapestry. Are you offended if I call it a tapestry? I know that technically it’s a piece of needlepoint, but I was brought up calling it tapestry and it’s a hard habit to kick. Plus, tapestry is easy to say, whereas needlepoint sounds more like a verb than a noun to me, whatever the dictionary says.
the early days…
Anyway, this is what it’s looking like today. Please forgive the light – it’s November and I live in a north facing house.
November 2011 – the end is in sight
There are still some juicy bits to do, but most of the large sections are in place now. The canvas is warping as you can see, but this is no problem, I’m sure I can stretch it when it’s finished, and considering the canvas is upholstery canvas, I’m very pleased with the way it’s held up.
I started this piece without too much attachment, but I’ve really fallen in love with it. I think the fact that it’s soft to handle, and the way it’s acquired a texture as I’ve worked it, have produced a tactile quality I haven’t felt before from standard needlepoint canvas.
It’s also far too big and thick now to fit into any frame that I have, so I’ve been stitching it in my hands, and draped across my legs most of the time, which I suppose helps you get close to the feeling of the piece.
Anyway, this was the last of the upholstery canvas I bought from the local car boot sale. I had a cursory look on the internet to see if I could source any more, but no luck. Does anyone know where I could get offcuts? I’ve become rather attached to this stuff and would like to explore it further.
Well, thanks to the very nice man who came out and replaced our internet equipment, I now have fully functioning broadband, after a couple of weeks without it.
Not naturally being one of life’s more optimistic people, I thought this was a long time, but having talked to several friends, I now discover that we probably ‘got off lightly’.
Nevertheless, not having constant access to the internet, has had an impact on me. After the first few days, during which time I did quite a lot of unreasonable ranting to the techno-guru husband, I almost became reconciled to the loss.
I think the worst of the pain was eased, when I discovered that I could get a good connection on my smart phone in our local supermarket car park. At least it meant that I could read emails and do urgent stuff.
Then a strange sublime calm came over me, when I realised that as I couldn’t use the internet at home, I was actually free to do other things. And, like some old folk memory, I could even recall the types of things that people used to do, in the old days (pre 1996ish).
The panic did increase a tad, when the daughters wanted help with their homework – you try finding 10 facts about fuels, for tomorrow, without google. But with half-term coming up, we escaped too much difficulty.
And now, everything is working, the girls are back at school, and life can get back to what we call normal.
Art & sewing.
When the girls are at home, I find it very difficult, if not impossible, to draw or paint, not least because it’s downright dangerous to draw while driving – which is what I think I spent most of last week doing.
It’s coming along slowly.
I did however manage to put quite a lot of time into the current tapestry/needlepoint project. I must have a think back and try to work out how many hours I’ve spent at it so far, but I’m loving it. As ever with me, I fall for the process itself. Just watching those tiny stitches soak into the canvas, has a sort of dreamy effect on me.
It’s good to be back. Have a good Hallowe’en, happy Samhain.
Dreaming In Stitches 